Warner's Budgens Taste Club: Seasonal Flavours

Bold ingredients to create comfort food you can cosy up with...

Purple sprouting broccoli: A sign that spring lies tantalising close around the corner, these beautifully-coloured spears are a joy to behold. It’s slightly more expensive than traditional broccoli due to its short crop time, but well worth the extra pennies just to add some variety to the usual winter vegetable fayre! We say savour these tender spears while you can...

Try this: make a delicious tart by frying off a red onion, some purple sprouting broccoli and a red chilli. Roll out some bought puff pastry and cover with the mixure. Glaze with beaten egg and scatter on some feta cubes. Bake until golden.

Turnip: These days this poor beleaguered root vegetable is recognised more as a scarecrow’s head than something you eat, but we’re campaigning to change all that! Turnip can be a wonderfully economical and flavoursome ingredient in most casseroles, soups, curries and gratins. Why not give the turnip a second chance and add it to your shopping list?

Try this: butter a gratin dish and rub all over with a cut garlic clove. Fill with sliced turnip, a teaspoon of thyme leaves, seasoning and grated Gruyere cheese and mix. Pour over 2 cups of milk to just cover the turnips. Bake for 30 minutes. Push the turnips down into the mixture, add some more cheese and bake for another 40 minutes until golden.

Forced rhubarb: Another welcome sight to the winter table are these stunning, jewel-coloured stems of rhubarb, grown specially to brighten up our winter days! Sweeter and more tender than its late spring counterpart, forced rhubarb can add colour and flavour to sweet and savoury dishes. See this month’s Chef’s Table to see how Russell’s of Broadway Head Chef Damian Clisby uses it as a delicious accompaniment to Vanilla Cheesecake...

Try this: make a simple yet sensational salad by cooking a few stems of rhubarb in butter and sugar until just tender. Make a dressing with olive oil, mustard, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Arrange some salad leaves on a plate, and dress. Lay the cooked rhubarb batons over the leaves and sprinkle on some goats cheese. Top with some toasted seeds.

Bramley apples: The king of cooking apples, Bramleys are another fruit that add vibrancy to sweet and savoury dishes. How about home-made apple sauce to spoon over a slow roasted pork sandwich, or what about a light but chunky apple sponge cake smothered in custard? With these versatile apples, the choices are endless...

Try this: try a twist on a bacon sandwich by adding cooked apples. Place the cooked bacon and apples between slices of thick buttered white bread and crumble with stilton cheese – simple!

40p off W R Haines Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Valid from Friday 3rd February 2012 until Thursday 1st March 2012

Try W R Haines Purple Sprouting Broccoli at a reduced price using your money off vouchers